Kukla's Korner Hockey

“What’s made ‘em so good this year is being bad long enough to get really good players. I’m not trying to be a smart—, that’s how you do it in this league now. You get bad enough so you get (Nathan) MacKinnon or these high, high end players. Their top six forwards they put out on the ice are flat-out fun to watch. It’s absolutely scary. Then their third line knows how to play and then they have a fourth line that’s got meat. So, to me, they’ve got a good group and I think they’ve done a really good job giving that team structure, the goaltending plays well, and their back end on the right side is very active. So all in all, they’ve been a real good team and they’re fast. You might have 40 shots and they might have 12, but they only need about 12. They can score. It just flat-out goes in the net for them.”

-Mike Babcock, head coach of the Detroit Red Wings on the Colorado Avalanche. More from Babcock and on the Avs from Terry Frei of all Things Avs.